Kelley S. Olah

Olah is co-chair of Barnes & Thornburg's drug and medical devices practice group. She advises leading manufacturers and retailers in product liability and mass tort cases. Among her clients are Johnson & Johnson and its DePuy Synthes subsidiary, Haemonetics Corp., Albertsons Companies Inc. and CVS Pharmacy Inc.

A chief goal during the pandemic: allow her clients to proceed with minimal business interruption as they assist and employ frontline responders. Olah, like most, is doing it from home. "It's been a wild ride," she said in mid-July. "We shut the office in early March and we haven't been back since. Now that we're in the midst of another surge, we have no immediate plans to reopen. Working at home with two little ones is an exercise in playing whack-a-mole with my other responsibilities."

Late last year, Olah successfully "flipped the tentative" after a judge originally indicated he planned to rule against the dismissal of her retail drug store clients in a major talcum powder case. It was a first-of-its-kind win for retailers being sued in mass tort litigation that have so far included only manufacturer defendants. O'Hagan v. Cyrus Mines Corp., RG-19019699 (Alameda Co. Super. Ct., filed May 21, 2019).

"There were two days of oral arguments on dismissal," Olah said. "The judge was willing to listen to my argument that retailers are situated very differently from manufacturers. When we compared the plaintiffs' expert evidence, which included thousands of pages of testing reports, we could show it was impermissibly speculative as to my clients. The plaintiff had simply not met its burden."

The turnabout and resulting dismissal came days before trial. "As a trial lawyer, you're all set, and then the rug's pulled out," Olah said. "But it was clearly the right result for my clients."

In ongoing litigation over hip implants, Olah was appointed by the court as lead defense counsel for all California cases. The claims involve metal-on-metal implants; Olah has managed the case from its inception to selecting candidates for bellwether trials. DePuy Pinnacle Hip System Cases, JCCP 4662 (SF Super. Ct., coordination request filed May 10, 2011).

"We were about to transfer out to federal court the majority of the cases," Olah said. "Like most, everything is stalled by the pandemic. It's frustrating, but we're all in this together."

Olah's practice is trial-heavy. In Los Angeles, many thought trials unlikely to get started this year. "But the judges are issuing case management orders and are contemplating remote trials," Olah said. "There is even discussion about having jurors participate remotely, or about using several courtrooms with video screens in a single case to maintain distancing. There are health and safety concerns and due process issues. But we'll see."

-- John Roemer